Three Kashmiri students are still awaiting justice after they were arrested by the police for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s win against India in the T20 Worldcup in October this year. The police charged them with sedition, reports by The Wire.
The students whose names are Arsheed Yusuf, Inayat Altaf Sheikh, and Showkat Ahmed Ganai were admitted to Raja Balwant Singh Engineering College in Agra. They also got expelled from the university as well. Police arrested them on October 27 after they uploaded some statuses on WhatsApp. Currently, they are in Agra jail for over 50 days.
After the rejection of their bail petitions in lower courts, their applications are now proceeding to Allahabad High Court.
Their families appealed bail orders for their sons but the Allahabad High Court in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) could not hear their applications for bail because of some procedural delays.
Prior to this, lawyers refused to aid the jailed students in Agra as they were labelled “anti-nationalists.” Some volunteers and student unions arranged legal aid in the city of UP, Mathura. Another application was also filed to move the case from Agra to Mathura alongside the bail plea but it is still pending in court.
The lawyer who represented the students, Madhuvan Dutt said, ”Justice Suneet Kumar was hearing the petitions today [Thursday] after lunch. Applications were heard until article number 43 however, our article number was 76. So our application was not disposed of. It is likely to come up only around the 6th or the 7th of January.”
Dutt added, “All litigants in UP are suffering with these delays. Three of our appeals for the transfer application could not be heard because there was no sitting judge. This delay is causing injustice for all litigants.”
According to a friend and mentor to the students, Manzoor Wani, other Kashmiri students faced harassment and threats after the arrest.
The hopes of the student’s families are fading due to delays in the hearing.
